Our idyllic hamlet has been turned into a LORRY PARK: Locals say …
Our idyllic hamlet has been turned into a LORRY PARK: Locals say their lives have been ‘ruined’ by after vehicle repair firm lined their streets with HGVs
- EXCLUSIVE: Homeowners have seen their lives torn apart since A&S Motors arrived last year
- Idyllic hamlet in Crockerhill is now filled with rusty trucks and the sound of pneumatic drills
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An idyllic rural hamlet has been turned into a industrial parking lot for rusty trucks – as helpless residents say their lives have been ‘ruined’ after a garage started using their street as a ‘lorry car park’.
Homeowners have seen their lives torn apart since A & S Motors moved in last year, filling their quiet homes in the South Downs National Park with ‘unbearable’ fumes and loud noises.
And a constant stream of coaches and lorries coming and going has turned their ‘pretty little hamlet’ in Crockerhill, near Chichester, West Sussex, into a crashing hellscape.
However, the owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill has fought back arguing said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station and an ex-manager at the vehicle repair company claimed his workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours.
Overspill from commercial vehicle repair company A & S Motors has ‘made life awful’ since they took over the garage in March 2022, according to residents.
An idyllic rural hamlet has been turned into a industrial parking lot for rusty trucks
Helpless residents say their lives have been ‘ruined’ after a garage started using their street as a ‘lorry car park’
They say their quiet homes in the South Downs National Park have been filled with ‘unbearable’ fumes and loud noises
Christopher Napier-Raikes and his wife, Jill, live opposite the ‘lorry car park’ which used to be a quiet petrol pump garage
Incensed locals say they now fear the situation may only change if a resident dies after the vehicles block emergency services from reaching them.
Homeowners claim a line of coaches is often parked on the slip-road off the busy A27 is an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
But even after involving Sussex Police and complaining to the local authority, the Environment Agency and the local MP nothing has changed after 15 months, residents say.
Christopher Napier-Raikes and his wife, Jill, live opposite the ‘lorry car park’ which used to be a quiet petrol pump garage.
They used to be able to enjoy the pub opposite before it closed and their road became swamped with school buses, horse boxes and refrigerated lorries in need of repair.
Now their mornings have been taken over by the sound of pneumatic drills and ‘great big lorries’ at all times of day.
Up to five big coaches are often parked on the slip road off the 60mph A27, which they describe as an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
Retired building contractor Mr Napier-Raikes, 85, said: ‘It’s a little hamlet here. Seven of the nine properties are Grade II listed.
‘It’s a public highway – although I know the road doesn’t go anywhere and it’s being used for obsolete coaches. It’s totally unsafe.’
Mrs Napier-Raikes, 84, added: ‘On a very bad day, we have started calling it musical lorries.
‘There is continual movement going on, with coaches being moved out. We quite often have to close our windows because the smell is quite terrible.’
Up to five big coaches are often parked on the slip road off the 60mph A27
Vehicles parked near the business in Crockerhill near Boxgrove in Chichester, West Sussex
Incensed locals say they now fear the situation may only change if vehicles which block emergency service access result in a resident’s ‘death
Overspill from commercial vehicle repair company A & S motors has ‘made life awful’ since they took over the garage in March 2022
The dispute has caused a state of civil war on the quiet hamlet
Mr Napier-Raikes said the vehicles’ engines can be running for up to 20 minutes which he finds ‘quite disturbing’.
‘This should all be done on an industrial estate really,’ he added.
‘It’s not what you would call part of country life.’
As a result, the couple, who share 13 grandchildren, said they are often forced to retreat from the front garden of their characterful home to the back to enjoy the sunshine.
On their bid to force change, he added: ‘We’ve had responses from everybody we’ve spoken to but it just gets passed down the line.
‘I think everybody is hoping it will go away.’
Despite the disturbance, the pair are adamant they won’t leave the home which they refurbished after buying it in a ‘practically derelict’ state.
Mr Napier-Raikes said there had always been a ‘village type of life’, adding: ‘The pub was there, the garage was there – but we didn’t know it was going to turn into this.
‘It’s not right for the people who live here – they’re not operating properly.’
His wife claimed ‘unbearable fumes’ and oil left everywhere have affected the area, adding: ‘It was a lovely spot.
‘But you couldn’t open a pub now, with all this going on.
‘The worst thing is the noise and the destruction of a very pretty little hamlet due to the amount of vehicles and, the fact it’s lorries and their fumes. It’s been turned into a lorry car park. It’s made life awful.’
Residents fear that the increased number of vehicles on the road will cause problems
Boxgrove Parish Council chairman Henry Potter (left), agrees with Christopher Napier-Raikes (right)
Jean Whiting, 80, lives nearby and says she has been made to feel ‘vulnerable’ as an elderly woman living on her own.
The retired nurse moved to the area eight years ago and said it used to be ‘nice’ to visit her neighbours, before the infiltration of big commercial vehicles.
‘I do feel vulnerable living by myself,’ she said.
‘The biggest thing is the movement when they are working there.’
Crockerhill lies between Tangmere and Fontwell on the A27, and is in the civil parish of Boxgrove – best known for a Lower Paleolithic site where ancient flint tools and animal remains have been unearthed by archeologists.
Boxgrove Parish Council chairman Henry Potter, who has lived in the village for 28 years, said the lives of residents were being ‘ruined’.
The ‘trouble’ even infiltrated the latest parish council meeting when a row broke out as one of the garage bosses attended.
Mr Potter, 82, said: ‘They have made no effort to regulate their behaviour and make lives a bit comfier for people who live there.
‘The situation has just got worse and worse.’
Another concerned local – part of the group that owns the Winterton Arms – has seen plans to re-open the pub delayed.
‘People are so upset because the disruption happens every day,’ he said.
‘But when we complain we’ve been passed from pillar to post, from department to department – nobody ever does anything.
‘We get told it’s someone else’s issue.
‘It’s awful, it really is. It’s not right for people in their late 80s, who are upstanding citizens.
‘It’s not a joke, but a death would move it on. It would be better if they did it before that.’
The owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station.
The ‘trouble’ even infiltrated the latest parish council meeting when a row broke out as one of the garage bosses attended
The owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station
A former director for A & S Coach and Commercial repairs, said the garage and workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours
John Lloyd has been the freeholder of the property for nearly 50 years and said local authorities would have intervened if A & S Coach and Commercial Repairs had been doing anything wrong.
Speaking at his £1.7m home in Chichester, West Sussex, the 77 year old said: “It’s always been a lorry repair shop.
“Perhaps because they have their own coaches it’s taking up more space.
“If they’re doing something legally wrong the relevant authority will stop them.”
Martin Herbert, who said he has now handed in his resignation as a company director for A & S Coach and Commercial repairs, said the garage and workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours.
Asking for his comments not to be published, he added: “The police have told us they can’t see we are doing anything wrong, we’re just trying to run a business.
“The garage has been here for 50 years.
“It’s not as if we’ve rented a unit and started doing repairs – it’s an established business.”
References
- ^ Iwan Stone (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Tom Mcardle (www.dailymail.co.uk)